Junk 6, 1901] 



jVA TURE 



to which cotton is now being grown in the United States 

 forms several chapters of considerable interest to those 

 concerned in the extraordinary development of the cotton 

 industry. The other countries of America in which 

 cotton culture is practised are next referred to, such as 

 Mexico, Brazil and Peru. Egyptian cotton, which is 

 largely esteemed, according to the writer, has been prin- 

 cipally developed during the last half of the 19th century. 



Allusion having been made to the historical use of 

 cotton in eastern countries, Madagascar and Persia, the 

 cotton-growing districts of Asia are then referred to. 



Some interesting information is supplied on the baling 

 of cotton as effected in different countries, and on the 

 principal cotton markets of the world. 



In the second part of the book the writer reviews the 

 general history of the development of the various branches 

 of the cotton industry, following with an analysis of the 

 trade and its growth as known in France. Similarly, 

 with the progress in England, Austria and Russia, and 

 the remarkable development in Japan. 



The work is purely one for the statistician, only being of 

 indirect utility to those engaged in the manufacture of 

 cotton fabrics, or in any way users of the cotton plant. 

 Still, to those who wish to have a comprehensive survey 

 of the remarkable increase in the culture of the cotton 

 plant in countries widely differing from each other in 

 climate and customs, the book will be found invaluable. 

 Roberts BeaU-aiont. 



Taxidermy ; Comprising the Skinning^ Stuffing and 

 Mounting of Birds, Mammals and Fish. Edited by 

 P. N. Hasluck. Pp.160. i2mo. Illustrated. (London: 

 Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1901.) 

 The foundation of this little treatise is a series of 

 articles by Mr. J. Fielding-Cottrill — occupying, it is said, 

 nearly twenty thousand columns — which have appeared 

 from time to time in (( 'ork-, and have been brought into 

 their present form by the editor of that journal. In his 

 preface the editor avoids any mention of the class of 

 workers for whom the volume is primarily intended, and 

 it is not easy to infer this from a study of its contents. 

 Certainly the professional taxidermist, who has at his 

 command works of the class of Mr. J. Rowley's "Art 

 of Taxidermy" (reviewed in N.\TURE for 1S98), has 

 nothing to learn from the present handbook, and it is 

 difficult to imagine in what way the ordinary amateur is 

 likely to be interested in the mounting of animals of the 

 size of a waterbuck (p. 49). 



It is not as if the author (or editor) had any new ideas 

 to communicate with regard to the mounting of such 

 mammals. On the contrary, although he confuses his 

 readers with an unnecessarily complex system of measure- 

 ments to be taken before skinning, he is really far behind 

 advanced modern methods in his system, which bears 

 no comparison with that adopted by many Continental 

 and American taxidermists. Indeed, mediocrity may, in 

 our opinion, be regarded as the leading feature of the 

 book ; and nowadays we require something beyond this, 

 at least for those workers who attempt the mounting of 

 big game. 



As regards the skinning and stuffing of ordinary birds 

 and the smaller mammals, the methods and descriptions 

 are, in an old-fashioned way, well enough ; and had the 

 editor restricted himself to work of this nature not much 

 fault could be found with his attempt. 



One thing we are glad to notice, namely, that the 

 author advocates paintmg stuffed fish in imitation of their 

 natural colours instead of being content with the faded 

 scarecrows still to be seen in some of our museums. 

 Whether, however, the methods, both of mounting and 

 colouring, advocated by him would result in the produc- 

 tion of specimens bearing any real resemblance to their 

 living prototypes could be decided only by actual in- 

 spection of the work. R. L. 



NO. 1649, VOL. 64] 



A Treatise on Electromagnetic P/ienomena and on the 

 Compass and its Deviatiojis aboard Ship. Mathe- 

 matical, Theoretical and Practical. By Commander 

 T. .A. Lyons, U.S. Navy. Vol. i. Pp. xv-f556. (New 

 York : Wiley and Sons. London : Chapman and 

 Hall, Ltd.) Price 25^. bd. 

 This first volume, which is to be followed by a second de- 

 voted to ships' compasses, takes a wide sweep over physical 

 science generally, Sound waves, light waves, kathode rays, 

 Rontgen rays and Hertzian radiation are treated in a 

 vigorous popular style, special attention being devoted 

 to the functions of the ether which pervades all space. 

 No preliminary knowledge is assumed, common language 

 is preferred to technical, and much information of quite 

 recent date is given — a notable instance being the in- 

 formation regarding atmospheric electricity obtained by 

 kite-flying. The reader never feels himself snubbed as 

 an ignorant person who must be content with elementary 

 knowledge, but is freely admitted to the most sacred 

 arcana. 



On the other hand, little attention is paid to precision 

 in the use of scientific language, and both grammar and 

 logic are sometimes loose. Moment of inertia is spoken 

 of as potential energy, and we are told that the field of a 

 current can be measured in dynes ; also that the 

 moment of a magnet and the strength of a pole can each 

 be expressed in dynes. On p. 152 the extraordinary 

 statement is made that a steel magnet of suitable strength 

 suspended by a thread between the poles of an electro- 

 magnet sets equatorially. As a matter of historic criti- 

 cism, the discovery of '' the dip " is claimed for Peter 

 Peregrinus, simply because he observed that a suspended 

 needle dipped when held over either end of a horizontal 

 magnet. 



About a third of the volume deals with magnetism, 

 especially terrestrial magnetism and the instruments for 

 measuring it — a subject with which the author appears to 

 have much practical familiarity, being, it would appear, 

 the founder of the Magnetic Observatory at Washington. 



The Steam-Engine Indicator. By Cecil H. Peabody, 

 Professor of Marine Engineering and Naval Archi- 

 tecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Pp. 

 153. (New York: John Wiley and Sons. London: 

 Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1900.) 

 A USEFUL little treatise, easy to read and understand, and 

 well illustrated. It has some defects. The error due to 

 stretching of the cord is thought to be merely a cutting 

 away of the two ends of the diagram, whereas the whole 

 diagram is altered on account of the continuous change 

 of length of the string as the pulling force alters through 

 inertia of the paper barrel and friction. Again, friction 

 of pencil on paper always keeps the diagram larger than 

 it ought to be ; the author says that it reduces the area. 

 Too much space is devoted to the theory of the plani- 

 meter and other matters. The important relationship 

 between natural period and time of revolution of engine 

 is not touched upon. 



Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century. By 

 Edward W. Byrn, A.M. Pp. vii -F 476. (New York : 

 Munn and Co., 1900.) 

 The author describes scientific discovery and invention 

 from the point of view of a man familiar with the 

 American patent office. Henry, and not Sturgeon, is 

 therefore the inventor of the horse-shoe electro-magnet ; 

 Morse, and not Cooke, is the inventor of the telegraph. 

 He has the patent office official's knowledge of science. 

 He bursts into rhapsody only at the beginning and ending 

 of chapters. He gives in each chapter bits of the history 

 of an industry, not very satisfying because very incom- 

 plete. But each chapter is readable, being somewhat 

 like an article in an illustrated magazine intended for 

 general readers. 



